


Book Covers

by Arsenic



Category: Deadpool (Movieverse)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Hot Chocolate, Pre-Relationship, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 00:05:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17011710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsenic/pseuds/Arsenic
Summary: Ellie's always been a little wary of people who are always happy.  As it turns out, Yukio might not actually be one of them.





	Book Covers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tide_ms](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tide_ms/gifts).



> This is unbeta'ed because it's a treat and I'm just pretty chill about those. 
> 
> Dear recip, I'm sorry I don't actually GET to their relationship in this fic, but I was kind of interested in how it might have started. I definitely think they get together as girlfriends soon after this, but I loved your rainy day concept and wanted to play around with that. I hope this speaks to something for you, it was fun for me to write.

Ellie knows people think Yukio is always a ray of sunshine and the rainbows that have been farted out of a unicorn's bumhole. For a long time, Ellie thought the same thing, and was bothered by the push-pull sense of finding Yukio sexually attractive but being turned off by her personality. It's not that Ellie has a problem with pure physical attraction, she just prefers that kind of attraction in the abstract, when it seems possible she might like the person for themselves, as well.

So, for the longest time, she just avoids Yukio when possible. Sure, they have to work on a team sometimes. Ellie's a fucking professional, okay? She can pull her shit together and act civil just fine when the situation calls for it. Which is exactly how she approaches things for...longer than she wants to think about. 

It's probably a year (maybe more) after Yukio comes to the school before the day Ellie makes her way half-blindly into the school library to get away from the worst of the noise in the halls. The library is decently sound-proofed, and somewhere almost none of the other kids go, since they're more likely to run into the teachers there than not.

On a day like this one, when there's rain pounding outside, the change in barometer pressure is causing Ellie a headache so bad she can feel it in her toes, and the walls of her room feel a little confined, it's the best choice of places to be, teachers or no. Sure enough, there are a few adults in the library. Dr. McCoy is perched atop one of the shelves, flicking through a book, and Ms. Pryde is curled up in the corner window seat with a mug. Otherwise, it's quiet, and airy, and exactly what Ellie's seeking.

She heads toward the northwest corner, which is the one with the best overstuffed armchair and a great view of the courtyard. When she arrives, instead of finding it empty, she sees Yukio, curled into a ball on the chair, rocking slightly.

Not in the mood to handle any amount of cheeriness, Ellie's in the process of turning around and hightailing it to another part of the library when Yukio must sense her, because she looks up and says, "Oh."

"Yeah," Ellie rubs at the back of her neck. "Sorry to—"

Yukio shakes her head and unfurls from her position, but it's—wrong, Ellie thinks. Her body language is all off, guarded rather than open, and that small "oh," had been quiet, reserved. Ellie doesn't exactly mean to block Yukio's way out of the corner, but she realizes she has when Yukio's almost—not quite—in her space, blinking at her.

"Shit," Ellie says, "I didn't—are you okay?"

Ellie will give it to her, Yukio does some strong work pulling up her usual smile and even voice tone to say, "Of course," but Ellie's _watching_ as she does it.

Ellie snorts and rolls her eyes. "Yeah, all right, c'mon."

"I—"

"Nope," Ellie says, and herds Yukio straight out of the library, down the hall, the backstairs, and into the kitchen. A couple of the older teens are hanging out, but Ellie gives them a Look, and sure enough, they all find somewhere they have to be. She almost grins. She's been perfecting that Look, clearly to the effect she was hoping for.

Instead, she seats Yukio at the prepping island, rustles around in the drawer she knows Scott keeps a stash of Excedrin in, and upon finding it, tips a couple into her palm. She dry swallows them and then grabs a saucepan and the double-boiler from the rack that hangs over the island. Setting them on the stove, she snatches the whole milk from the fridge, a bar of semisweet baking chocolate, sugar, and vanilla extract from the baking cabinet, and the salt from the spice rack.

She pours the milk into the saucepan and puts the heat on low. Filling the bottom of the double-boiler with about an inch of water, she gets to chopping the chocolate bar into small enough pieces that she can easily melt it down, stirring the vanilla, salt, and sugar in until smooth, and the adding the milk a bit at time.

Flipping the stove off, she pulls two mugs from the cabinet and portions out the cocoa before topping them both with a handful of mini-marshmallows from the candy drawer. Ellie walks around the island then to sit next to Yukio, pushing the second mug in front of her. "There. Drink."

Yukio wraps her hands around the mug, looking down at it as though it will explain what is happening to her. "Thank you," she says, but it's quiet, pensive.

"Yeah, well, we all have bad days."

Yukio smiles at that, not bright, not like normal, but still real. She takes a sip. "Oh," she says again, but this time it's tinted with pleasure.

Ellie looks down at her mug, then, and ignores the way her body lights up like a fucking Christmas tree at that soft exclamation. 

"Sometimes," Yukio says, "I am homesick for a home that can never be again."

Ellie nods. She knows what that's like. So many of the people in the school do. 

"It's foolish." The corner of Yukio's mouth twists. "I've chosen this place. This team. This family."

Ellie pops a marshmallow in her mouth and lets it melt the rest of the way on her tongue. "I'm not sure choosing to go forward is the same thing as never looking back."

"No." Yukio scrunches up her face in chagrin. "No, it's not. It would be easier if it were."

"Yeah," Ellie agrees.

They drink the rest of their cocoa in silence. Yukio takes the mugs and pans and begins to wash them in the sink. Over the running water she says, "You don't like me," and some of the playful normality has returned to her voice.

Ellie says, "I don't know you." She didn't realize that until just now, but it's the truth all the same.

Yukio puts the mugs and pans in the dryer rack. "I really am happy most of the time. I want to be, so I find a way."

"I'm not anti-happiness."

Yukio looks at her expectantly.

Ellie huffs. "I'm not. I'm just…not great at it. And people like to make women feel bad for not smiling, so I sort of…"

"Grew a shell," Yukio finishes.

"A firewall."

Yukio smiles at the joke. She also says, "I've never needed anyone else to be happy for me. I can be happy enough for myself."

"But it must be easier—"

"Your mistake," Yukio says, "is that you think I'm someone who likes things easy."

The words hit Ellie like punches. She feels a little breathless from interest and also from embarrassment. "Yeah, you're uh…that's true."

"If being happy were easy, everyone would do it."

And, well, that's the best point Ellie's heard in a long time. She tilts her head. "You like a challenge, huh?"

Yukio just rocks a little on her feet, waiting.

"You know what the best thing to do on a rainy day is?"

"Drink hot chocolate?" 

Ellie acknowledges this with a roll of her hand. "Nap."

"That does sound pretty amazing," Yukio says. "But I think cuddling is even better."

"Well, the beauty of napping, is that it can be done simultaneously with cuddling." Ellie keeps her voice even, her eyes meeting Yukio's.

Yukio grins. "Your room or mine?"

Ellie hasn't had anyone in her room up until now. It has been her sanctuary, and hers alone. It has been her fortress, her moat. She swallows. "I have a double."

Yukio reaches out a hand. "Show me the way."

*

Yukio's so tiny, she should be all hard bones and angled planes, but she's not. It takes a few moments of fumbling, rearranging, figuring out who should be where and what works best. Then, though, there's nothing but the warmth of another person, the emotional intimacy that comes from sharing a blanket, and the lulling sound of the rain on the windows.

Yukio murmurs, "Ellie?"

"Mm?"

"I've always liked you."

"Yeah, yeah, we already know you're the better person."

Yukio twists up so she can press her nose to Ellie's, their eyes close. "I don't like bad people."

Ellie thinks about that for a long moment. "Okay."

Yukio smiles and then lists back to snuggle in again. "Okay."

Ellie snorts. "Yeah, okay."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] Book Covers](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20654111) by [knight_tracer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight_tracer/pseuds/knight_tracer)




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